aim higher, stay focused

If you want to grow your business, you don't only need to have ideas or create something that is different today. You need to connect to the right people in order to receive feedback, to learn, to accelerate market penetration, to beat the competition ... and yes, learn about what the future can look like through the lenses of world industry #influencers.

I always find it interesting when companies indicate that what they do has never been done before or is truly unique to them ... sometimes! I think it might be best to say that one has developed solutions or services or products that can bring more efficiency to an organization than any other solution developed by competitors in the same space. But again, it could be that a visionair truly has created something new that will open new market spaces! Still, check out those that might have tried something similar and failed most likely if they are not to be considered competition.

What is important for those outside looking in, is your roadmap, your ideation process, your capabilities of deployment, the scalability of what you are designing and your willingness to look beyond your market. We should not forget that there might be others doing the same thing you are doing today. Of course the assumption is that it is not as good as your solutions, but it crucial to understand that they can catch up faster than one can imagine and beat you where it matters: less costly but as efficient or as beautiful if it is a product.

What are you working on for the next 2-3 years that will transform the industries you are targeting? PR work is always a great thing, articles to indicate that your company is influencing industries in the direction you want; a new article about company XY - Paid for - by the company whose name is headlined! You also have the winning of multiple prizes at events that won't necessarily guarantee that strategic partners take an interest in what you offer. Which has a bigger valuation; press articles or potential strategic partnerships?

What do your investing partners want from you? Are they looking at you as a potential unicorn company that will yield enormous returns? Have you secured the vision of your company?

When the opportunity to accelerate partnerships is put before you, should you ponder whether this opportunity can have a positive return on investment? Entrepreneurs accept the hundreds of thousands even millions of dollars or euros invested in their future capability to deploy in large ecosystems and truly disrupt an industry they have targeted. But why does it then become difficult for some startups, SMBs or investors to diversify their business development channels?

I now understand that cultural barriers may hinder some as they do not wish to hear: "we are not interested", "you are not so different from the 4 or 5 companies from South Korea, the UK, India, Kenya, Brazil, ... we've talked to", "you are not ready for this market" ... These are opportunities for your business, ideas to improve. Use multiple channels to create business opportunities and grow your business.

When was the last time you engaged your business in conversations with a Fortune 1000 company in North-America or LatAm for example?​Turning on the Lights Global - We link innovation-focused companies with potential partners in the Americas and allow rapid diffusion of ideas through a structured channel across geographic regions. Creating meaningful cross-cultural experiences & building internationalization processes for success.

The power of innovation comes to maturity when it can be accessible to such a critical mass of people that the innovation will have a societal or global impact.Why is diffusion of innovation and technology important?Technology has proven to be important through the transformations of our societies; creating new consumption ways through e-commerce for example, new communication ways with the continuous development of the internet, the things linked to the internet, face talk applications, robotics as a service and professional conferencing tools. Technology has allowed growing international trade with tracing, gps and intelligent supply chain solutions.“A market's hostility to innovations becomes stronger when players are interconnected. In a networked market, each participant will switch to a new product only when it believes others will do so, too. The players' codependent behavior makes it tougher for companies to dislodge the status quo than if each participant were to act autonomously.” Chakravorti (2004)Nowadays, ideas alone are not strong enough to move societies and the world; it is the accelerated diffusion of technology based on those ideas that has brought the Arab spring through Twitter, YouTube and FaceBook. Diffusion of technology is now often driven by causes as people adopt and adapt innovations to the message they wish to push such as the fight to protect endangered species around the world or ease access to clean water. Accelerated diffusion of innovation and technology through smart phones accessible around the globe has reduced the inequality access to technology and even favored business development in regions where adoption is quick; for example farmers in sub-Saharan Africa that use their smartphones to know the market prices of goods and the affluence in markets; allowing to know when to go and sell and when not. We have also seen a strong m-commerce industry develop in Kenya and Nigeria.What factors affect diffusion into the global marketplace?Economic and sociological factors can affect the diffusion of innovation in the global marketplace. In his book Diffusion of Innovations, Rogers (1995) provides five categories classifying features that affect potential adopters of an innovation:1) The advantage of the innovation.2) Its compatibility, with the potential adopter’s social norms.3) The complexity of the innovation.4) The ease with which the innovation can be tested by a potential adopter.5) The ease with which the innovation can be evaluated after trial.What can or should you do to promote diffusion of your products and processes globally?Tie the promotion of your solutions to significant issues such as the protection of the environment, well aging, wellness, access to banking, savings, economic empowerment, professional education, e-learning, etc. Understand that the importance is not just to think about an innovative solution, but rather the potential adoption of an innovation that can transform behaviors.Turning on the Lights Global - We link innovation-focused companies with potential partners in the Americas and allow rapid diffusion of ideas through a structured channel across geographic regions. Creating meaningful cross-cultural experiences & building internationalization processes for success.​

According to PWC’s report Why global sourcing? Why now? “ As organizations embark on developing global sourcing strategies, it makes sense to leverage leading practices and lessons learned from the firms that have gone before. The approach to determining which activities should be sourced is significantly more robust and mature than it was even a few years ago.

According to Chan Kim and Mauborgne, the Six Paths Framework allows managers to address the search risk many companies struggle with. It enables them to successfully identify out of the haystack of possibilities that exist, commercially compelling blue ocean by reconstructing market boundaries. The idea is that you don’t only develop and enhance your offering to win markets, but you can redefine it by introducing aspects of elimination and reduction. In this context the Global sourcing is about creating new networks and technology offerings for global markets.

Value creation is about the people and businesses we want to transform into potential consumers or clients of our services. The company innovation value proposition with regards to services is to offer a sustainable differentiation and engage prospects so that they may be the innovators of our services. The goal is to co-create value by developing services that represent what the future will look like in the mind of the customer.​Workforce development and innovation are key elements of competitiveness, participation in GVCs, and within GVC upgrading. Under the international pressure of competitors, countries need to increase the skill content of their activities or develop competencies in niche market segments (Humphrey and Schmitz, 2002). The knowledge and skill intensity significantly varies across sectors and activities: moving up the value chain will require the availability of new skills and knowledge.

Strategy Canvas AnalysisRunning a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) obligates one to consider carefully cash flow. First, cash is like the gasoline in an automobile. When there is lack of gasoline, the engine stops and the consequence is a crash. New companies in the hi-tech business and service management industries, talk of a “burn rate”: the higher the overheads, the bigger the risks of failing.The global sourcing aspect is a vertical business from innovative developers to the U.S. to boost the relevance of innovation centers and vice-versa, innovative or established services from the U.S. to emerging markets. In the fourth quarter of 2000, PeopleSoft’s operations in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region delivered a significant contribution to the company`s overall performance. The region showed a 108% license revenue increase over the previous quarter (PeopleSoft).

Noncustomer Analysis“The Four Actions Framework is used to reconstruct buyer value elements in crafting a new value curve.” Kim and Mauborgne (2005). Having satisfied customers is no guarantee of improved business results. Indeed, satisfaction is a passive state: a willingness to stay until something better comes along. Unlike satisfaction, loyalty is a long-term commitment to the organization and is linked to share-of-wallet and retention. Customer-centric organizations consistently achieve significantly higher profitability than non-customer-centric organizations. The issue is the nature of the customer focus. Customer loyalty and profitability management recognizes that improved business results occur as a result of understanding both drivers of revenue and drivers of true cost that create economic profit.

Your strategy is to establish a position based change. For example, when commercial agreements are signed, there should be included vocational scholarships for the local youth or a minimal investment in human development; clean water filters, power generators, assistance to the disabled … Jeb Brugmann and C. K. Prahalad consolidate this analysis when they declare that: “When companies and NGOs innovate together, the commercial nature of the relationship and their roles can vary, but the outcome is often a breakthrough. In fact, this quiet dialogue, away from public debates, has spawned key principles that will underlie governance structures in the future.” The content and marketing tools you need to use to communicate with all parties should relate a message that goes beyond profit making.

Turning on the Lights Global - We link innovation-focused companies with potential partners in the Americas and allow rapid diffusion of ideas through a structured channel across geographic regions. Creating meaningful cross-cultural experiences & building internationalization processes for success.​

“Innovation is the process whereby new and improved products, processes, materials, and services are developed and transferred to a plant and/or market where they are appropriate.” Albert Rubenstein (1989).

Relative Core Competency and measurement matrixSchulz (2007) writes: “One of the primary goals of effective strategic thinking is to allow you, as an analyst, to come to a “big picture understanding” of the elements of both the external world that affects a business, and the internal world of the business. Strategic choices are born between the spaces of opportunities and threats in the external environment on the one hand, and the skills and capabilities of the company on the other.”

Whether companies are seeking international partnerships, export sales, expansion to new markets, or open innovation opportunities, it is important to establish strategic partnerships and use various channels. An effective partner should be utilized as a sourcing partner which can offer the expertise and intelligence about that new market, in order to connect with opportunities that can rapidly expand your business or transform your perspectives to better adapt your solutions. The free flow of capital, expertise, service and products; the increase in international partnering and trade finance options; and globalization have dramatically increased access to markets around the world.

General Approach to Leadership and CultureSawhney and Parikh (2001) give us an overview of how to best deal with issues of culture and leadership, when they write about harnessing the values that live in our networked world: “By being aware of patterns in network intelligence and by acting rather than reacting, companies can turn chaos into opportunity.” In other words, a strong organizational culture is one of the most sustainable competitive advantages a company can have because it is unique. But to do so, it is important to have leadership that paradoxically blends humility with ferocious resolve and the ability to give credit to others while assuming their own failures (Collins, 2001).

Furthermore, openness towards cultural sensitivities that may be radically different from personal values and beliefs is a crucial point of the new paradigm of leadership effectiveness.Here are values that reflect sustainable global sourcing and trade;1. Integrity in your business approach2. Exchange with your Customers and Trade Partners3. Innovate4. Empower and Give Back: to your communities and the communities with which you do business.

According to IBM's Organization and Workforce Transformation; driving innovation and growth in today's business environment requires focus on the organization and workforce capabilities. The ability to manage costs, drive productivity and gain a competitive advantage from the workforce is growing in importance and focus. Today's dynamic workforce is increasingly globally dispersed, multi-generational and multicultural. Effective management requires an integrated and consistent approach to help drive cost savings, efficiency, retention, quality, customer satisfaction and innovation.

Turning on the Lights Global - We link innovation-focused companies with potential partners in the Americas and allow rapid diffusion of ideas through a structured channel across geographic regions. Creating meaningful cross-cultural experiences & building internationalization processes for success.​​References:

After watching the Powers of Ten video, I found it unglamorous, probably as would be a company with a poor corporate culture; where upper management only focuses on profits and never on human capital.

How does this metaphor apply to the dynamics within an organization?The metaphor can give an interesting perspective about mobility within an office. But when zooming out, it is possible to see that beyond the local office, there are regional, national and international offices for one to look at, in terms of corporate mobility.

Moving up or down the organizational structure, how does the "view" change?One should not be hypnotized or paralyzed by the vertiginous compounding complexity of layers. The new perspective that comes from Powers of Ten is that it is crucial to have a good understanding of the project or organization we are a part of before designing ourselves into new projects, positions or offices.

At what point does the individual, the department, or the division become the dominant paradigm?When someone's skills are used to work effectively, to better respond to difficult situations, to resolve problems, and improve communication; then the individual can become the dominant paradigm. The challenge is to know at what power of ten it is optimal to act. Eames (1977) has simply illustrated the challenge; and it is our charge to become or transform departments into the dominant paradigms.

Understanding one’s skills helps to better manage a project or build up a team. The Powers of Ten allows to see that if skills are being used efficiently or if they are not, then companies can either have the ability or not to identify areas which could open new best practices or business growth opportunities.

Turning on the Lights Global - We link innovation-focused companies with potential partners in the Americas and allow rapid diffusion of ideas through a structured channel across geographic regions. Creating meaningful cross-cultural experiences & building internationalization processes for success.​​Reference:Eames, C. (Director). (1977). Powers of ten [Audiovisual recording]. Retrieved from http://www.powersof10.com/film

An organization’s culture comprises an interlocking set of goals, roles, processes, values, communications practices, attitudes and assumptions. Organizational culture is the sum total of an organization's past and current assumptions, experiences, philosophy, and values that hold it together, and is expressed in its self-image, inner workings, interactions with the outside world, and future expectations.

Hiring for the organization not the job is the only effective selection model for sustainable business environments. Employee personalities must fit the management philosophy and values that help define the organization's present and future. Indeed, companies need to manage tomorrow's opportunities as competently as they manage today's businesses, therefore leaders of a company or organisation, have the responsibility to inspire the organization with a view of distinct sustainable goals and reach the set target (Hamel and Prahalad, 1990). It is my belief that there is a significant constructive relationship between core competencies and competitive advantage. Still I see, many "amateurs" in leadership or human resources, destroy their human capital because they still see people with acumen as if they were simple tools that a care plan will replace. Losing human capital that has been invested in and has invested themselves in striving for an organization is like cutting a forest, planting new trees and expecting them to absorb the deficiency of the same organization.

To achieve the overall company goals using the HR function and staff, it is important to work with people who are already in the company; Per Hass & Vernon (2010), there is a competitive advantage in maintaining and valuing seasoned talents. If one cannot find what is needed, then draw from the young employees within the organization. Look into the outside market to identify new competencies only as a late alternative that could promote performance.

It is crucial for the organization to institute a comprehensive employee health policy. This will boost the standards by which employees are treated and set a workplace environment favorable to sustainable development. Data is coming back from the Affordable Care Act, and I am thrilled to see that when employees used to stay at a job just for their benefits they can now leave. And with employers abusing their employees with poor coverage they will pay a higher price by seeing their retaining numbers diminish and see their negative appeal increase.

Overall, the first steps that will allow a company to achieve its goals need to be clear such as not reorganizing immediately, clarifying the vision and enforcing management roles with existing managers as enablers that share the vision. Communicating horizontally in transparency will also be a part of the strategy to succeed.

Turning on the Lights Global - We link innovation-focused companies with potential partners in the Americas and allow rapid diffusion of ideas through a structured channel across geographic regions. Creating meaningful cross-cultural experiences & building internationalization processes for success.​​References:

Organizations can #motivate and #engage employees by appointing and supporting #sustainable #leadership. Leadership that does not focus on self-rewarding but on serving the company they represent through long term planning and positive workplace energy. It is important that leaders show integrity for employees to be proud of their workplace. Companies must also go beyond just work relationship by fostering supportive and healthy lifestyle relationships with employees or members; people should be considered the engine of success.

​Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric (GE) said: "No company, large or small, can succeed over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it."

When looking at the back burn position Dubrin A.J. has about crisis management, it indicates that he does not consider crisis management as an important factor in motivating employees. My experience as an International Trade Advisor having to deal with cross-cultural businesses has proved that effective communication and crisis management are priorities to enhance one’s involvement within an organization. Attitude-behavior consistency is an interesting arm of motivation theory; that declares if people are to behave in a certain way, they will only follow leader’s attitude based on personal experience. The difficulty is the aptitude for people to express clear messages that are not outside visible attitudes.

Overall, #experience and #competence, not title, have proven to make me a stronger and motivated contributor to my organization.

Turning on the Lights Global - We link innovation-focused companies with potential partners in the Americas and allow rapid diffusion of ideas through a structured channel across geographic regions. Creating meaningful cross-cultural experiences & building internationalization processes for success.​

“Innovation is the process whereby new and improved products, processes, materials, and services are developed and transferred to a plant and/or market where they are appropriate.”Albert Rubenstein (1989)

Nokia’s history is truly remarkable; it is in the top 3 mobile makers in the world and is from Finland; a country with a population below 6 million people. The strategy of involving 40% of its employees in R&D and not centralizing them in one single research and development unit has proven to be very efficient. Nokia has been able to transform itself from a wood pulp mill to a cluster of ready to implement innovative solutions and products.

A notable example of innovation at Nokia are the Virtual Private Network (VPN) capabilities for remote offices and small enterprises, of which Dan MacDonald, vice president of marketing, Nokia said:"Faced with the need to reduce costs and improve business efficiency without risking security, CIO's and IT Managers are extending reliable network access to users in a variety of locations. The Nokia IP40 delivers to the remote office and small office, the same level of security, high availability and management required of a large enterprise or data center."This is a process innovation that will lead to new opportunities and just as Dan MacDonald says; it will allow small and medium firms to compete with larger firms because they will be able to operate lightly in multiple locations at lower costs while protecting confidential business matters. This innovation falls in trial use commitment on the S-curve of technological progress because as much as there is an understanding of what the purpose of this new process is; there are still limitations in terms of integrating such as system as a company standard. I believe companies bought into it to test and proof if it was a fit.

Another unique innovation from Nokia is the enablement of millions of mobile consumers worldwide to enjoy live and on-demand access to digital multimedia through the integrated alliance with RealNetworks. Rob Glaser, CEO and Chairman, RealNetworks, Inc. announced:"Our two companies will accelerate deployment of mobile media services by offering field-proven, standards-based technology as well as total business solutions to mobile operators and content owners.”This would be a product innovation due to the discarding of an old platform only focused on audio for a new platform that would allow usage of rich media; audio and video for entertainment and news. This innovation falls in the evolution of successive products on the S-curve of technological progress; it is a great improvement to a new system made available immediately to a very large consumption group. In this case, Nokia and RealNetworks have made the determination that this will have to be adopted and therefore yield high profits in the short run; they are leading and enforcing change.

A final example of Nokia’s culture of innovation would be the exciting Club Nokia; an online community and loyalty program for Nokia phone owners who with Lucas Film made Star Wars related content available for the first time on phones. This is a marketing and media innovation product in terms of the partnership and access to exclusive content. This innovation falls in the growth section on the S-curve of technological progress because it is an innovative product that is integrated to an institutionalized platform for Nokia device users.